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Classical turned contemporary dancers Sylvie Guillem and Akram Khan come together for an intimate duet.
She was Rudolph Nureyev’s protégée; he comes from an Indian classical kathak tradition. Put them together and chances are some breathtaking choreography will ensue. The reviewers in London certainly thought so with The Times proclaiming “dazzling sequences set the seal on this extraordinary meeting of minds and bodies”.
Sylvie Guillem is arguably the world’s most celebrated living ballerina. Renowned for her extremely high extensions, she trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School where Nureyev promoted her from the school to the top rank of ‘etoile’ when she was just 18.
She stayed there for six years before taking up residence at the Royal Ballet in London and continues to be a principal guest artist at Covent Garden.
British-Asian choreographer and dancer Akram Khan has won awards for his groundbreaking work that fuses western contemporary dance with kathak. Previous collaborators include writer Hanif Kureishi and sculptor Anish Kapoor.
Guillem and Khan met when she came to see one of his shows. “I’d only seen her on film and was in awe of her ability as a dancer, but when I spoke to her I felt she was an artist too and this was inspiring to me,” says Khan. “So we decided to get into a studio for a few days and slowly decided to make a piece.”
The piece was Sacred Monsters, which opens at Sydney Opera House this month. The title refers to a term coined in the 19th century for the glory conferred upon the heroes of the arts and sports worlds. “Also Sacred Monsters represents that the stage is a very sacred place but it can also be a monster; it’s very unpredictable,” Khan notes.
One of the major challenges Khan encountered working with Guillem was their difference in heights.
“I’m not used to dancing with any dancer who’s taller than me, especially in the intimacy of a duet, where the choreography depends on the physical relationship between the two,” he says.
“So it’s the struggle of the bodies, because they’re so different, to find harmony, which became the concept of the piece and it dictates the movement. I’m shorter and stockier and she’s tall and flexible but one of the things we share is we’re both classically trained and that speaks volumes; it speaks connection because the philosophy of the approach to classical is the same in all art forms: trying to achieve perfection through repetition and discipline.”
The show is a mixture of dance and spoken word, based on interviews Khan undertook with Guillem. “[They were about] the transition from classical to contemporary and how we took our classical with us,” he explains.
“Your body doesn’t just switch off; you can’t just forget; you can consciously say it but the body has its own memory, and it’s about the struggle between these two worlds and how different they are and also in life how both of us had to deal with the backlash of the classical world.
They felt I’d betrayed them by moving to contemporary and I think it may be similar for Sylvie. It’s about the observation of our shift.”
The theme of Sacred Monsters is about being the child in wonderment, Khan continues. “It’s about being in wonder of the art form we love so much. It’s a journey with short anecdotes from our childhood and Sylvie relating her love for a character called Sally from ‘Charlie Brown’ because she used to read the books.
I felt connected to Krishna except for when I lost hair I thought I wouldn’t be accepted in the classical world because Krishna has long hair so I started to search inside me for Krishna rather than [going on] what he looked liked.”
Next year Khan will be working with actor Juliet Binoche. When asked what he looks for in a collaborator, he says: “If there is a common denominator it’s that you see the passion and curiosity you feel in yourself and when it exists in someone else you feel connected somehow.
It’s a real desire and need to say something with their dance or body or emotion or words; it’s an invisible connection.
“With Sylvie we were connected through our wonderment and curiosity. Her body has extraordinary capabilities – I was fascinated by her body’s ability to tell stories and she was fascinated by the art form I do and also the way I present the contemporary work using tradition, because for me it’s not about throwing away to be new, it’s about finding your own individual voice from a tradition so your feet are in the past and future so it’s a balance.”
Sacred Monsters, March 17-19, 8pm, Opera Theatre @ Sydney Opera House, $55-$125. Bookings: (02) 9250 7777 or www.sydneyoperahouse.com.
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